Under a leftist city assembly, Mexico City became
the first place in Latin America to legalize gay marriage with the 2009
reform. Adoptions by couples who married under this law have been taking
place since 2010.

The northern state of Coahuila, which borders Texas,
also legalized gay marriage, in September 2014. And last month, two
women became the state’s first same-sex couple to adopt a child.

Still, nationwide, Mexico is not exactly the bastion
of liberalism it may sound like. Eighty-two percent of Mexicans
identify themselves as Catholic, according to the census. And more
staunchly conservative parts of the country are pushing in quite a
different direction from Coahuila and Mexico City.

Take the state of Campeche, the swampy setting of
Graham Greene’s book on Mexican Catholicism, “The Power and the Glory.”
There, lawmakers passed a 2013 law specifically banning gay adoption.
(This could be overturned by the new ruling.)

Violence against gay people is also common in some areas. In June, a gay activist was stabbed to death in the north-central state of Queretaro, a murder that colleagues said was a homophobic attack.

What makes a family

Campaigners for the rights of lesbians and gays see marriage and adoption as key rights that naturally follow from each other.

“At its core you are asking what constitutes a
family,” says Jessica Stern, executive director of the New York-based
International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

“There is more than one way to make a loving home.
You have widows, siblings that cohabitate, step parents, divorced
parents, and many others. You cannot say that someone who is not in a
heterosexual unit will be any less of a dedicated or loving parent. That
is totally irrational.”

In the United States, 38 states will now allow some
form of adoption by same-sex couples, but there’s been no national
ruling on the issue.

But in Mexico, while support for gay unions is growing, there’s more opposition to adoption.

A survey
in 2013 here found that 52 percent of Mexican people supported marriage
rights of gay and lesbian couples, but only 24 percent said those
couples should be allowed to adopt children.

Catholic clergy members also say they more vehemently oppose gay adoption than marriage.

“We have to prioritize what causes more problems,”
says Valdemar, the archdiocese spokesman. “Adoption by people of the
same sex affects a child who has not chosen this. A child has a right to
a mother and a father. Having two parents of the same sex could cause
them psychological problems.”

Yet gay rights activists say the argument that adoptions by same-sex couples are unhealthy is based on prejudice, not fact.

A survey
conducted last year in Australia looked at 500 children with same-sex
parents and found they were as healthy, and in some cases doing better,
than other children.

Stern, of the New York-based advocacy group, says
attitudes are changing rapidly around the world. She sees growing
acceptance of different families in the future.

“It is an exciting time of transformation,” Stern
says. “And Mexico is a great country to look at in terms of the changing
environment. It is at the vanguard.”

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